[media-credit name=”Provided by Breckenridge Brewing” align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] Renderings of the new Breckenridge digs

The lid has been lifted on one of the worst-kept secrets in Colorado brewing: Breckenridge Brewery is building a $20 million brewery complex on 12 acres along the South Platte River in Littleton that will both give it desperately needed room to grow and serve as a tourist destination.

The fifth largest brewer based in Colorado has been searching for a new, larger home after multiple years of double-digit growth caused it to outgrow its existing brewery on Kalamath Street in Denver.

Breckenridge is under contract to purchase the property from Designs by Sundown – a landscape architecture and construction firm – for $2.7 million, said Todd Usry, Breckenridge brewmaster and director of brewing.

[media-credit name=”provided by Fate Brewing ” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Fate Brewing occupies a huge space that was the longtime home of a Mexican restaurant.

Almost all the ingredients are in place for Boulder’s soon-to-open Fate Brewing Co.: an owner with a solid track record at a craft beer-centric pub, an experienced brewer with medals to his credit, a successful round of fundraising and a stylishly renovated large space in a good location.

What owner Mike Lawinski did not anticipate was another brewery opening in Arizona with the same name.

The proprietors of the two Fate Brewing Cos. say they started developing their ideas about the same time and didn’t discover their conundrum until about eight-and-a-half months later.

A handful of Colorado breweries – from two of the state’s biggest and most established to a couple of relative newcomers – will travel to New York this year to pour their beers at SAVOR, a beer-and-food event staged by the Boulder-based Brewers Association.

More than 200 breweries entered the lottery to take part in the June 14-15 event, and 60 were chosen.

Is a peaceful resolution possible to a dispute that seemed headed for court as Strange vs. Strange?

The owner of a Massachusetts-based homebrew supply business called Strange Brew said Friday he is open to a compromise that would result in Denver’s popular Strange Brewing Co. retaining its name.

That represents a change from the harsh tone taken last fall by the store’s lawyer, who originally demanded that Strange either stop using the name as soon as possible or face a lawsuit.

Both sides say much work remains to resolve a dispute that has riled passions, led to a Facebook campaign and inspired a sold-out event at the Rackhouse Pub in Denver this weekend featuring 30 local breweries raising money for a legal defense fund Strange Brewing hopes it will never have to use.

Word has it that in a sleepy little cattle town tucked in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, a man who lives a dual life as an insurance broker and a mad-scientist brewer has developed a knack for creating sour beers.

All right, it’s not exactly a secret among the state’s beer geeks that Three Barrel Brewing Co. in Del Norte is worth checking out if you happen to be in the area.

But what you might not know is that the tiny brewery has ramped up production in the past six months, is adding a bottling line shortly, and those sours soon will be available in Denver.

If there’s a case study to be done on corporate consolidation in craft brewing, Magic Hat Brewing is a strong candidate.

What began in 1994 on a seven-barrel system in a tiny brick warehouse in Burlington, Vermont, is now part of Costa Rica-based international conglomerate that also trades in resort hotels and canned beans.

You may or may not have noticed (it was around GABF, after all), but Magic Hat entered the Colorado market in October, introducing locals to its flagship No. 9 apricot ale.

The BA put Magic Hat on a list of “domestic non-craft breweries” published along with the Craft vs. Crafty statement. (The list didn’t go over well with everyone. Brewer Troy Casey of AC Golden, part of SABMiller, likened it to a blacklist.)

[media-credit id=351 align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] Cannonball Creek’s owners like their location on the north side of town.

The lines outside the grand opening of Cannonball Creek Brewing on Saturday stretched out the door and around the building. Friends were pressed into bartending duty. Glasses had to be washed on the spot to keep up with demand. The IPA is teetering on the edge of being kicked.

Apparently, Golden was thirsty for another craft brewery.

“It was a lot bigger than we expected,” co-owner Brian Hutchinson said of the big opening weekend. “We thought we were going be busy. But we got crushed. It was insane.”

Update (1:45 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 22): Wynkoop reported the following on Facebook today: “It looks like we have found a shipping service for you non-Denver folks seeking our nutty stout and our other canned goods. We hope to have full details inked in a few days, stay tuned.”

They seemed like the perfect pair – a Colorado brewpub with a sought-after beer that made a national media splash and an upstart company that promised to get it in the hands of drinkers across the country.

Wynkoop Brewing Co.’s Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout was an April Fool’s fiction turned into fact, a rich Colorado-malted foreign-style stout whose signature ingredient – bull testicles – were sliced by hand and roasted before being added to the beer’s mash.

The stout debuted just prior to October’s Great American Beer Festival – about the same time a Pennsylvania company called Beerjobber made a marketing push of its own trying to convince breweries its beer shipping concept could work for them.

On the first day cans of his award-winning beer are to roll off the line, Kevin Delange is fast asleep on the office couch.

It’s just after lunch, and pizza boxes are strewn about the offices at Dry Dock Brewing’s $4.5 million new production facility – a huge undertaking that positions the eight-year-old Aurora business to grow first in Colorado and then nationally.

When Delange says this latest evolution of the business is far less stressful and scary than others, he means it.

In an era of huge growth in the industry, Dry Dock stands out as one of Colorado brewing’s biggest success stories. From its humble origins connected to a homebrew shop, Dry Dock has gained a reputation for brewing top-notch beers, creating a welcoming space and finding allies in the civic leaders and residents of Colorado’s third largest city.

Our new iPad app serves as a guide to metro Denver’s bountiful breweries, beer bars and bottle shops, the holy trinity of craft beer enjoyment for followers and fans. Download the app for iPad .
Next time you head for a beer in Boulder, don’t forget your friend, Beers of Boulder and Boulder County, an iPad app from the Daily Camera. Download the app for iPad .

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In Colorado, our pint glasses overflow with excellent beer. New breweries, new batches, festivals every other week. How lucky are we? First Drafts is The Denver Post's beer blog aimed at helping you keep tabs on the state's ever-expanding craft beer culture. We offer a mash of news, event coverage, homegrown stories, tasting notes and tips to help you imbibe. Expert drinker or homebrewer? Let us know what you're loving about Colorado's beer scene. Not sure exactly what a firkin is? No worries, let us be your guide. Go ahead. Belly up and drink it in!